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Daily Driver: 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid

Daily Driver videos are micro-reviews of vehicles in the Autoblog press fleet, featuring impressions from the staffers that drive them every day. Today's Daily Driver features the 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium, reviewed by Sebastian Blanco. You can watch the video above or read a transcript below. Watch more Autoblog videos at /videos. VIDEO TRANSCRIPT [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to another Autoblog Daily Driver. This is Sebastian Blanco coming to you from behind the wheel of a 2015 Toyota Avalon Hybrid XLE Premium. This is the silver metallic and light gray version. Comes in at $38,455. It has an Entune Premium audio setup here. It's a Toyota. It's a hybrid, which probably makes you think of a Prius. The Avalon [00:00:30] and the XLE and the Premium, what we're really dealing with here is a world's plushiest, comfiest bigger Prius. It's a very different kind of car, with the body style, but you've got a lot of similarities if you've spent any time in a Prius. The fuel economy of this Hybrid on the official scale is 40 miles per gallon combined, 40 in the city and 39 on the highway. I've driven it over 400 miles this week and my average was 34.3 miles per gallon. [00:01:00] Much lower than the numbers would suggest and there's really no excuse for that. I was driving with the cruise control on, mostly on the highway, the weather is fine. This should have been an easy 39, but maybe that's the fault of the cruise control. The sport mode in this car for me has been kind of a joke. When I was interacting with the car in a more discernible manner, I couldn't tell much difference. This isn't the kind of car that you want when you're dealing with sport mode. [00:01:30] You know what you're getting with this car. It's a little more luxurious, not quite Lexus level, but definitely the higher end for a Toyota. It's nice if you like these sort of cars. This is definitely worth a look, but it's not going to be on my shopping list anytime soon. Perhaps it is on yours. For Autoblog and AutoblogGreen, this is Sebastian Blanco for another Daily Driver.

Toyota breaks ground on new Texas HQ

Automakers are on the move in America: Cadillac is shifting from Detroit to New York, Mercedes is moving its US headquarters from New Jersey to Atlanta, and Toyota is relocating its North American operations from locations around the country to a new facility outside of Dallas in northern Texas. That process started yesterday when the Japanese automaker broke ground at the new facility. Toyota used a 2015 Tundra TRD Pro Series pickup to officially break ground at the intersection of Headquarters Drive and Palomino Crossing in Plano, TX, with the city's mayor joining Toyota Motor North America CEO Jim Lentz and a crowd of 100 dignitaries. Toyota announced the relocation back in April, and in the months since has purchased the property, hired a developer, architect and project manager, and filed preliminary plans with city hall. The site is set to be ready late in 2016 or early 2017, moving operations from California, Kentucky and New York. Other facilities like the one in Ann Arbor, MI, will not be affected by the relocation. Related Video: TOYOTA PLOWS FORWARD IN PLANO, BREAKS GROUND ON NEW HEADQUARTERS PLANO, TEXAS, JAN. 20, 2015 – A V-8 engine growls, and the earth moves. With the roar of a 2015 TRD Pro Series Tundra, Toyota today formally broke ground on its new North American headquarters at the intersection of Headquarters Drive and Palomino Crossing in Plano, Texas. The Tundra took center stage, bulldozing the first soil on the site of Toyota's new campus in a manner that can only be described as not your traditional groundbreaking ceremony. "The support and encouragement we've received from the community, civic leaders, business partners and nearby corporations has been nothing short of tremendous," said Jim Lentz, Toyota Motor North America chief executive officer. "Our goal is to build an environmentally-sustainable campus that our new neighbors will welcome and our team members and associates will be proud to call home." Toyota also unveiled an installation during the ceremony: the word "TOYOTA" in large letters, standing 10 feet tall and 64 feet wide. Inside each letter are native Texan Yaupon Holly trees, which represent "wish" trees, a Japanese cultural tradition. Students from the Plano ISD Academy High School and community participants contributed to the event by adding handwritten notes to the trees representing their wishes, dreams, hopes and inspirations.

Toyota C-HR stays sharp from prototype to production

Scion is dead. While the troubled brand was given 13 years to make a case for itself, it never quite succeeded. And that's a shame, because we're pretty confident that this, the production-spec Toyota C-HR would have been one of its biggest hits. Instead, when it arrives in the US, it will be as a Toyota... where it will still likely be a big hit. The new small CUV made its debut after literally years of teasing concepts, the most recent of which was shown late last year in Los Angeles, where it was badged as a Scion. After seeing that car, it's quite clear that Toyota has strained itself to translate its style to the real world. Up front, there's clear inspiration from the Toyota Auris/Scion iM. But aside from the front, the C-HR's biggest inspiration appears to be the Nissan Juke. View 14 Photos It's like Toyota has tried to go even further, though. Its wheel arches are flared even more aggressively and they feed into a strong character line on the lower portion of the doors. In back, Toyota's designers seem to have just rotated the Juke's taillights 180 degrees while they sit below an extremely fast rear window. Said window is integrated into today's latest design trend, a floating roof. Mechanically, the C-HR rides atop Toyota's New Global Architecture, which is Japan's answer to Volkswagen's MQB architecture. Power comes from a hybrid drivetrain, good for a relaxed 120 horsepower. If you don't want hybrid power, Toyota will sell the C-HR with the Euro-market Auris' turbo 1.2-liter engine, but we almost certainly won't see that here in the US. Instead, American drivers will probably be left with nothing but a 2.0-liter, naturally aspirated four-cylinder. That engine will be exclusively paired with a continuously variable transmission that sends power to either the front- or to all four wheels. So there's Juke inspiration, but not in the driving character. Toyota says it will build the C-HR Hybrid in Turkey. We don't know if that facility will handle US-market vehicles or just Europe, but we wouldn't be surprised to see additional facilities come online to produce this stylish little bugger. Related Video: TOYOTA C-HR Toyota's Fresh New Take on the Crossover 2016 Toyota Motorshow Geneva Making its world debut at the 2016 Geneva motor show, the C-HR gives Toyota a powerful new presence in the crossover market.